The hearing will focus on French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s proposal for a Mediterranean Union, formally known as The Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean. The proposal, introduced on July 13 at a summit of European Union (EU) and Mediterranean leaders in Paris, would reinvigorate the 1995 Barcelona Process and establish a more structured European-Mediterranean partnership. Witnesses will examine the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mediterranean Partner perspective on the Union for the Mediterranean, the Paris Summit, as well as regional implications of the proposed mechanism within the context of OSCE commitments.